-When I made my call, I had no idea of a reward and the moment I got the option for it, I was immediately apprehensive and kind of mentioned that even after I did choose it.
-Would there be any way I could ever know if anybody ever even got my report?
-Would it help to make another call and elaborate on the things I didn’t go into enough detail on, like his mom paying for the essentials?
He’s pretty much leeching off his mom to the best of my knowledge.
This being IMHO, my opinion is mind your own business and don’t make assumptions about what you think you know about people. Honestly, how charmed is your life that you can’t just live and let live? You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, and the likelihood of anyone getting enough cash money from welfare to buy extravagant games and other luxuries is so highly unlikely as to be absurd.
I know virtually all of what I’ve laid out for certain, and he at least deserves examination. I’ve known this guy for about 6 years now and have seen and heard more than enough of his behavior in recent months (and pretty much the entire time I’ve known him) to know what he’s been doing and what he’s really like.
That might sound abit extravagant, but he’s a very peculiar case for me.
Might I suggest that you get a hobby. Your concerns are so far from welfare fraud that it’s ridiculous. Don’t you think the state checks into people’s situations before approving someone for aid? Trust me, they’ve found out far more about this person in the time he’s been on aid than you ever will. And they approved him. So butt out and mind your own beeswax.
Yes, my interest is obviously money, malice and nothing else. There’s absolutely no way the state could make a mistake here (in spite of how welfare fraud/abuse has been reported and convicted on innumerable occasions throughout this country) and multiple people other than me who’ve known him for 4-6 years, people hes lived with and open statements hes made couldn’t be more informative than that.
I mean look, my first post admittedly didn’t have enough details- such as living off his mom and his complete lack of will to work (falling back on supposed mental instabilities) and my follow-up posts filling in on that seem abit forced, but I’m surprised by the hostility and canned responses that amount to “mind your own business and get a hobby/the state couldn’t make a mistake/you’re only in this for malicious intent and money/how could someone buy video games with welfare money?” I’m not going to go into my views on welfare- many, many people do need it and the idea of so many people having kids entirely for an extra $200-250 a month (or less) has always struck me as a huge exaggeration, to say the least- but there are undoubtedly people out there who do it out of pure social parasitism, even if they are low income, and I have it on very good authority that this guy could qualify for fraud/abuse.
I do understand your frustration, really. However, most states have, years ago, enacted some form of welfare reform. It’s actually pretty difficult these days to qualify for aid and to stay on it for any length of time. You pretty much have to be too ill to work, with proof of that, or have a baby under the age of 1 to not have to be looking for work and accepting volunteer work if you can’t find paying work. No longer is it the case where you can do absolutely nothing and get a check every month. And even if you somehow manage to do just that, there’s a limit to how long you can do it for. Many states give a maximum of 5 years of welfare for you whole lifetime, and that’s including when you were a child, if your mom got it. So really I think that your concerns are overwrought and needless, and based on old stereotypes and myths about people that receive welfare.
Yeah, I’m not that well read on welfare myself, but that’s why I posted this thread to begin with. But look- going by my years of experiences with him and considerable personal accounts from people who’ve known him just as long or even in person, even accounts from someone he’s lived with, and in his own words and behavior, he does not remotely deserve public assistance. He doesn’t have anything like medical fraud (as far as I know, but there are possible indications) or fake relatives, but everything indicates abuse on his part- abuse born of hypochondriasis and pure hedonism.
I wasn’t aware of the 5 year limit, though. I don’t know about his family history. But, even just a year of welfare abuse is something I’m concerned about. The fact he’s still abusing it since the first case I know of from a year ago and has bragged about an upcoming check (very little doubt he’s trolling) indicates he has longer to go.
But I feel this thread has kind of diverted. In face of what I’ve outlined about this guy- even if I were to go and report more on him to LA social services- what are the chances they’d even give his case a look? Even if it doesn’t follow open and shut cases like medical fraud and fake family members?
If you have actual, physical proof that the guy has lied about his resources and doesn’t qualify, as opposed to deserve, then I’d say the chances of them following up on it are good to excellent. If what you have is “well, look at him, he looks like he can work to me, plus he was bragging about getting a check soon”, then the chances are zero.
The myths and ignorance regarding welfare and government assistance are unbelievable. You know what we need? An ask the welfare worker/welfare recipient (if anyone dare admit it among the judgerati, haha) thread would be great for folks just like our friend Dreen.
Back when I was living in my car, I couldn’t get food stamps because I didn’t have an address. Of course, I didn’t push the issue because I was also a runaway. The one and only time I got help from the government was when I sat on the floor because I was fainting from not eating. The help didn’t come from the government, it came from one of the workers who gave me some food and sent me to a food bank. She seemed to feel very badly that she couldn’t do more for me.
Now that I do have a home, I give money to the local food bank because they helped me out.